Unfortunately there isn´t really anything I can tell you about the event, since our mantra at SEOktoberfest has always been => don´t blog – don´t tweet – don´t tell!

Our annual SEOktoberfest Grand Charity BBQ has raised 31.204 Euros this year and due to a couple more generous donations onsite, the overall sum should be just below 40.000 Euros this year. Unfortunately, I don’t know the exact sum, since people donate directly to the charities. Thank you all so much for raising this astonishing amount of donations to two great charities > The Münchner Tafel and the Amazonica Foundation.

I hope to see everyone of you again next year at the Grand SEOktoberfest X Charity BBQ

Don´t forget: there will be only one more SEOktoberfest event – SEOktoberfest X next year will be the last & final SEOktoberfest in its current form! So don´t procrastinate any more and join us next year at the Charity BBQ!

If you are still unsure – Ralf, Sebastian and Mario have blogged cool recaps (and more pictures) of this year’s Charity BBQ. Thanks for the great reviews, guys!

Next year will be only Alumni, there will be only 1 Newbie! Our longtime Charity BBQ main sponsor LinkResearchTools has the exclusive right to raffle off this one new person, that will be able to join our little ThinkTank next year – join the competition! Good Luck!

When Quadszilla and myself started SEOktoberfest back in 2008 we did not dare to dream this event running for such a long time. Still, SEOktoberfest was always intended to be just ten events – one decade of SEOktoberfest. Like P.T. Barnum and Walt Disney once said: “Always leave them wanting more”.

Tickets for this year’s SEOktoberfest sold out within just 4 minutes, despite the hefty price tag of 5.000 Euros.

Two tickets were awarded by anonymous application this year. Congratulations to Sander Daniels of Thumbtack and Eric Wu of Opendoor for mastering the anonymous application process – both have been awarded the opportunity to buy a ticket and will be joining us this year as a Newbie.

There were 96 people on the official waiting list, but only two open seats. Applications remain anonymous since at SEOktoberfest it’s not about well-known employers and fancy job titles, it’s really about the person itself and his / her SEO-savviness. Everyone attending this year’s SEOktoberfest voted on each of the anonymous applicants, to find out which person really fits our little SEO think tank the best. It sounds completely crazy, having to anonymously apply to be awarded the chance to buy a 5.000 Euro conference ticket, but that’s how it has always been. Although I would not call it a conference, it’s a 72-hour experience. 72 hours of pure SEO, in all its shades. Seating is limited. We don’t have any interest in making the group any bigger, to make sure everyone is comfortable sharing information you would not share anywhere else. We’re very proud, no information ever leaked and people really honor the grand rule of SEOktoberfest: “don’t blog, don’t tweet, don’t tell“.

This year will be the next-to-last SEOktoberfest – SEOktoberfest X next year will be the last, final and ultimate SEOktoberfest.

Since only Alumni are allowed for the last SEOktoberfest, this is in fact the last chance to join our illustrious SEO think tank as a Newbie.

You don’t just win the last and final ticket to SEOktoberfest, 4 nights accommodation in a great Munich hotel are also included. So you just need to get to Munich – everything else within your 72 hours of SEOktoberfest experience is on us!

The Challenge takes place September 6th. We are all really excited to find out who will join our illustrious group this year!

SEOktoberfest has changed so many professional SEO lives already, it might also change yours.

Here’s what three former SEO Scavenger Hunt winners say about their SEOktoberfest experience:

“Winning the 2015 SEOktoberfest challenge is one of my greatest achievements. I take much pride in it because winning a ticket wasn’t a matter of luck – it was a matter of hard work and effort. I put my heart and soul into the challenge, and I am happy it turned out to be such a rewarding experience! Getting the first prize opened up new doors for me – I got invited for one of the most amazing SEO conferences ever. First and foremost, though, I became a part of the recognized experts’ community and made friends with many people who have always been authorities for me.“

“I was fortunate enough to win the LinkResearchTools scavenger hunt in 2014, and I can say with confidence: it changed my life! Not only meeting the brightest minds in SEO, but actually getting to know them, see what works and what doesn’t and a sense of community that is still there until this day. It also put me in a position to land my dream job — I met the VP of SEO of TripAdvisor, moved from Germany to the US and am loving every minute of it!“

“Becoming part of the SEOktoberfest group of people with their incredible wealth of knowledge and attending what is definitely the top SEO event is simply priceless! So I’m obviously really happy that I won the SEO Scavenger Hunt and got to take part in all this.“

Do you have what it takes to become a part of SEOktoberfest? What are you waiting for? Register now for the LinkResearchTools SEOktoberfest Challenge and compete in the SEO Scavenger Hunt September 6th! Good luck!

It´s only 11 weeks to go until SEOktoberfest 9. The 9th event of ultimately only ten SEOktoberfest events. SEOktoberfest X next year will be the last, final and ultimate SEOktoberfest. Boy, have we something special planned for that

The Charity Auction for our Grand SEOktoberfest Charity BBQ has ended last week and 31.884 Euros will be donated to the Amazonica Foundation and Münchner Tafel for the 50 exclusive tickets. Of course, we were quite dissapointed to generate “only” 32k in donations this year, after three years well above 40k. We don’t want to be ungrateful though – 32.000 Euros is still A LOT of money for both of these small local charity organizations. Thanks to everyone, placing a bid! There actually haven’t been less bids than last year, a lot of bids came after the deadline though. Maybe it was a mistake to shorten the Charity Auction period to just two weeks… We are still very proud to have generated almost 250.000 Euros for these two great charities worthy of support with our SEOktoberfest side-events over the years.

So you missed your chance to bid for a Charity BBQ ticket but still want to be part of the real SEOktoberfest experience? It´s tough, but there´s still two ways to score one of only two seats we have left at this year’s event. The SEOktoberfest roster is pretty much set, but we saved two attendee seats, one you can apply for and one you can win with the SEOktoberfest LinkResearchTools Challenge.

Apply for a ticket

A ticket to SEOktoberfest is 5.000 Euros (it´s a non-profit event though – all the money from the attendance fees goes towards the event). All available tickets were sold within less than 4 minutes this year! This is why you have to apply for a ticket and – if chosen – you get the right to buy a ticket. Since we are only giving out just a couple of tickets to Newbies each year, the waiting list keeps growing every year. There is well over a hundred people on the waiting list, but there´s still a fair chance to score a ticket! Since there´s a lot of heavy hitters on the waiting list, popular speakers themselves, or maybe coming from known brands, we still want to give everybody the same fair chance. So there´s an anonymous application process with three easy questions. It ain´t about popularity or having a popular employer, so all SEOktoberfest Experts and Attendees vote on all received anonymous applications to ensure we find the one person, which fits our little group the best. I know, it sounds absolutely crazy, having to anonymously apply for buying a 5.000 Euro conference ticket – but that´s just how it is and has always been.

At SEOktoberfest we don’t care where you’re coming from, we don’t care about your age, your gender, your race or even if you drink beer or not – we just care about how SEO savvy you are! You have to LOVE SEO – that’s about it! If you just want to party at Oktoberfest this conference is definitely not for you, don’t bother to apply if you’re just looking to drink & party. Keep in mind, this is the next-to-last SEOktoberfest – next year is only for SEOktoberfest Alumni, no Newbies allowed for the last and final SEOktoberfest. This is the last chance to join our small SEO think tank as a NewbieChristoph just blogged on Medium about how SEOktoberfest brought his business life to a new level. This could be you!

Win a ticket

Christoph Cemper and his team at LinkResearchTools have been supporting the Charity BBQ as a main sponsor for several years now, so like every year, he has the honor to do a contest for the last SEOktoberest full ticket! He´s also throwing in 4 hotel nights in a great hotel close to the SEOktoberfest venue. So you just need to figure out a way to Munich to have the professional SEO experience of a lifetime – for free. So head over to the SEOktoberfest LinkResearchTools Challenge and take your chance. Once again a SEO scavenger hunt – may the best one win! Good luck!

SEOktoberfest has changed so many professional SEO careers already, it might just also change yours!

The 8th event of ultimately only 10 SEOktoberfest events! SEOktoberfest X in 2017 will be the last and final SEOktoberfest. Boy, have we something special planned for that So if you ever wanted to experience what SEOktoberfest is all about, you should probably get moving.

We´re getting quite a couple ticket applications and also a lot of questions around the event. Basically there are three ways to become a part of the SEOktoberfest experience in September:

The Grand SEOktoberfest Charity BBQ

The SEOktoberfest Charity Auction for just 50 exclusive tickets to this unique event is going until this Friday – June 26th! Like every year the bidding is quite low at the beginning – the real bidding war usualy starts on the last two days of the auction – so try to bid a bit higher, to not flunk out of the list at the last minute. Remember – you are donating your bid directly to one of two great charities, so you are not "buying" a ticket, but rather make a donation for your exclusive seat at the Charity BBQ!

The SEOktoberfest Charity BBQ just isn´t enough for you? You want to be part of the real SEOktoberfest experience? It´s tough, but there´s still two ways to score one of only two seats we have left at this years event. The SEOktoberfest roster is pretty much set, but we saved two attendee seats, one that you can apply for, and the other way, that you can win.

Apply for a ticket

A ticket to SEOktoberfest is 5.000 Euros (it´s a non-profit event though – all the money from the attendance fees goes towards the event) – still you have to apply, and – if chosen – you get the right to buy a ticket. Since we are only giving out just a couple of tickets to Newbies each year, the waiting list keeps growing every year. There is well over a hundred people on the waiting list, but there´s still a fair chance to score a ticket! Since there´s a lot of heavy hitters on the waiting list, popular speakers themselves, or maybe coming from known brands, we still want to give everybody the same fair chance. So there´s an anonymous application process with three easy questions. It ain´t about popularity or a popular employer – we really aim to find the best person that fits our little group the best. In know, it sounds absolutely crazy, having to anonymously apply for buying a 5.000 Euro ticket – but that´s just how it is.

At SEOktoberfest we don’t care where you’re coming from, we don’t care about your age, your gender, your race or even if you drink beer or not – we just care about how SEO savvy you are! You have to LOVE SEO – that’s about it!

If you just want to party at Oktoberfest this conference is definitely not for you, don’t bother to apply if you’re just looking to drink & party.

Win a ticket

Christoph Cemper and his Team of LinkResearchTools have just launched a new Content Marketing Software called Impactana. At the moment you can sign up for early access. I have been a fan of the software ever since it´s alpha version and I can only strongly recommend you to take the new software for a spin!

Christoph has been our main Charity BBQ sponsor for a long time, and like every year, he has the honor to do a contest for the last SEOktoberest full ticket! He´s also throwing in 5 hotel nights in a great hotel close to the SEOktoberfest venue. So you just need to figure out a way to Munich to have the professional SEO experience of a lifetime – for free. So head over to the SEOktoberfest #LastTicket contest page and take your chance. Good luck!

SEOktoberfest has changed so many professional SEO careers already, it might just also change yours!

Unfortunately there isn´t really anything I can tell you about the event, since our mantra at SEOktoberfest has always been => don´t blog – don´t tweet – don´t tell!

Our annual SEOktoberfest Grand Charity BBQ has raised 56.015 Euros this year! We all finally wanted to break the 50k mark, and since the Charity Ticket Auction "only" raised 47.185 Euros for the 50 exclusive tickets for the Charity BBQ, almost everyone from SEOktoberfest chipped in so we finally surpassed our target of 50.000 Euros in donations. Thank you all so much for chipping in and raising this astonishing amount of donations to two great charities > The Münchner Tafel and the Amazonica Foundation #Mission50k #YouRock

There´s been quite a couple of Charity BBQ recaps this year – if you´re still thinking about if the Charity BBQ is worth a donation, you should definitely check out what these people think about their SEOktoberfest Charity BBQ experience (the recaps are mostly german though…) >

WOW! Our Grand SEOktoberfest Charity BBQ Charity Auction has ended last friday, and the overall result is just absolutely incredible! We raised 47.185 Euros for Charity!! 47.185 Euros for the 50 tickets we offered to join our exclusive event.

The average ticket price is 943 Euros (!) for a single ticket! Nine generous people even donated over 1.000 Euros for one single ticket with Karl leading the pack with a 5.000 Euro donation! Otto.de Head of InHouse SEO Marcel took 2nd place with a generous 3.000 euro donation. 3rd place goes to longtime Charity BBQ supporter Pelle, followed by the SearchBrothers Kas & Fili, who are going to raffle of this ticket – stay tuned! Pip, Ralf, Lars, Andor and Sunday Nite have also bid over 1.000 Euros – thank you very much!

The minimum bid has been 625 Euros (!) this year by Justin Taylor – not bad for a minimum bid

Check out the final list with all 50 people that will spend a once-in-a-lifetime event with the whole SEOktoberfest crew in a little less then two months. Congratulations to everyone that made the list!

Both the Münchner Tafel and Mascha from Amazonica are absolutely stoked about this years incredible result! Mascha from Amazonica and Hannelore Kiethe from the Münchner Tafel will also be at the Charity BBQ, so just say hi if you want to know more about what the money will be used for! Since I´m personally involved with both charities I know that all the money is really being used for a good cause.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part in the charity auction!! And thanks to everyone who helped spread the word! We did a little Blogger-Competition this year and there have been quite a couple of posts about the Charity BBQ! And the Winner is… Jackie Hole! Congratulations Jackie, you will spend an awesome day here with us in munich!

Thanks to Julian, Karl, Gerald, Ned, Alex & our winner Jackie for taking part in the Blogger-Competition and helping spread the word!! You guys rock

Did you miss the charity auction, but desperately want to come to SEOktoberfest? There´s one last chance for a ticket to SEOktoberfest VII -> The annual SEO Scavenger Hunt! Take the challenge to win the ultimately LAST ticket to this years SEOktoberfest incl. 5 nights in a munich hotel and 1.000 Euros extra travel budget! Good luck!!